Black and Blue

The two greatest metal bands of the 70's perform on the same stage in the "Black and Blue" tour of 1980. Although fans have been tantalized with revoked promises of a US DVD release, this recording has thus far only been released in Japan. I don't know how my girlfriend managed to get me a copy, but it was a great gift.

Blue Oyster Cult performs material off their critically acclaimed "Cultosaurus Erectus" album, while Black Sabbath, fronted by Ronnie James Dio, supports "Heaven and Hell," their first and best release after firing Ozzy. The bands switch off every three songs or so.

The recording starts off with a hokey but fun music video of BOC's "Here's Johnny (The Marshall Plan)," featuring Don Kirschner. Sabb's set includes forgotten greats like "Neon Nights" and "Heaven and Hell." BOC delights with cult hit "Godzilla," aided by the ugliest smoke-spewing paper-mache monster I've ever seen.

The lighting is a bit dim and the camera is none-too-creative, but nothing compares to watching guitarists Tony Iommi and Buck Dharma take turns slugging it out. Also, seeing Ronnie James Dio sing Ozzy's songs is a rare treat.

I voted 10 stars mostly because, well, I'm in this movie - sort of - my hand is definitely in it.

This was a concert that occurred on a Friday night, 17 October 1980 in the Nassau Veteran's Memorial Colisseum in Uniondale NY on Long Island.

I was at this concert in the 2nd row on the floor in front of the stage. I remember being right in front of Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath. (Sabbath opened that night, with Blue Oyster Cult being the second band. The next night,Saturday, the concert was held at Madison Square Garden. BOC went first and Sabbath went second for that show. I was there too but far from the stage.)

Anyway, back to the movie. This movie was actually an episode of Don Kirschner's Rock Concert which, if I remember correctly, was on NBC (in the New York market) appearing after Saturday Night Live.

The movie itself probably had more footage than the episode of DKRC.

Anyway, the Black and Blue tour was a big tour in 1980, so it is easy to see that they would take all of that footage for DKRC and would turn it into a movie. This was the era when teenagers often would smoke dope at the midnight movies such as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" or "The Grateful Dead" movie. So, the Black and Blue movie would fit right in... And, yes, I saw it at The Uniondale Mini Cinema in Uniondale NY which was famous for starting the Rocky Horror craze.

So, keep in mind that this movie was most likely filmed on videotape and was originally destined to be seen only on television.

If you lived "That 70s Show" and especially liked those bands, this would be a good movie for you. Other than that, it's a good historical piece for illustrating the rock and roll concert-going life and the end of the 70s / beginning of the 80s. While it's not Woodstock, it definitely illustrates how times had changed in the 11 years between Woodstock and Black and Blue.

Concert footage of Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult shot around 1980 or so. I seem to be one of the few people to actually see this in a theatre. It played one week only in a tiny little theatre in Boston. How tiny? The basic reaction people yelled out on seeing how small the theatre was was "NO WAY" or other more colorful refrains. The screen size was (to be nice) small and the sound while LOUD was not in Dolby stereo. I was in college when I went to see it out of curiosity (I knew nothing of the two groups). The theatre wasn't exactly packed but it was full of teenagers who knew the groups and knew the songs and were in full voice. I had more fun listening to their reactions then seeing what was on the screen! Also there were three ushers (for this tiny little theatre) that were constantly running up and down the aisles telling kids to keep quiet or telling them to put out the joints (some kids literally tried to smoke them in the theatre)! The movie itself was badly shot with quite a lot of the footage out of focus. Also the director didn't seem to have a clue on where to put the camera--it was all over the place. I didn't recognize (or like) any of the songs and I thought the Godzilla song by Cult was incredibly stupid. I admit to laughing out loud when the drummer put on a Godzilla mask while drumming (with strobe lights going full tilt). So for a non-fan this was pretty boring and pointless but the audience made my screening fun (that's why I'm giving it a 5 instead of a 1). BTW most of my audience walked out of the movie, after it was over, swearing a mile a minute about songs that WEREN'T in the movie. For die hard fans this might be fun.